Category:Societal Characteristics -- Hivers

From SOTS

Contents 1 Agriculture 2 Clans 3 Interpersonal Relationships 4 Rights/Possessions 5 Superstition

Agriculture

The Hivers are avid gardeners, farmers, and raise various herd animals for their own sustenance. Food is rationed and tends to be distributed on a daily basis through clan hierarchy channels. Withholding of food is a common mild punishment for those who commit any offense, and free access to communal food stores for a brief period is a common reward for meritorious conduct. Sharing of food or preparing meals communally with others is a sign of affection and esteem. Sacrificing of one's ration to another is a rare but powerful gesture.

Clans

In space, Hivers tend to live and move in large family groups. All of the members of any given Hiver fleet are usually related to one another by birth. These "clans" are groups of single princesses and their children.

• The story of the Motherless Sons.

Interpersonal Relationships

How a Hiver female views her children depends on the mother. In general there is a strong sense of entitlement—a princess or queen expects absolute love, devotion and sacrifice from her children. On the other hand, there is responsibility—although Hivers seem to be "disposable" from an outsider's view, a Hiver female has maternal attachment to her sons (and, if she becomes Queen, her daughters). How this balance sits with any individual Hiver mother depends on her character, obviously—there are evil abusive mothers, loving nurturing mothers, rigorously ambitious mothers, etc.

On the other hand, all other non-royal Hivers who work together will work together as brothers—and in 99 cases out of a 100 they literally are brothers. They have the sorts of relationships you expect among siblings in a large family—some are very close friends, some become competitive (even destructively so), some are mutually disdainful or outright loathe one another.

Rights/Possessions

Hivers understand personal possessions and personal space, but they also have a strong sense of responsibility and co-ownership of communal property and communal space. They do not understand "littering" in a park, or willfully leaving a mess for others to clean up.

Any given Hiver may own a few small items of his own which have personal significance, but he is more likely to be emotionally attached to his workplace, recreational facility and barracks as "home". Only those with the highest status ever achieve any elbow room, such as having ones' own quarters or office. Warriors are more likely to have an attachment, sentimental as well as physical, to a favorite tool or weapon.

Even domestic Hivers have a tendency to hot-bunk with other clan members, sleeping in shifts while others are awake and working or enjoying recreational time. They like to secure their limbs while sleeping, and tend to try to nestle into an appropriate-sized hexagonal chamber.

In terms of basic individual rights and basic attitude toward others, every bug is as good as the next bug—unless the next bug happens to be of the breeding class. Design parameters aside, the personal competence and usefulness of the individual cannot be discounted. Hivers in a military organization have rank and a chain of command that goes with it.

Superstition

The Hivers have their tales of terror, just as any other sentient might—of Hivers devoured by a terrible enemy and returning as members of the enemy race to devour more living Hivers. It is essentially a variation on the vampire legend. Such creatures are conceived to be only one soldier-type from a whole hive of monsters. "Children of the Black Queen" is a general term for all demonic entities. Although not commonly spoken of in public, many Hivers believe that there is an anti-Goddess as well as a Goddess of the universe, and that this "Black Queen" and Her children are the authors of all misery, entropy, pain and destruction.